21 Day Prayer Challenge

Ephesians 1:15-20 Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, 16 I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, 17 asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdomand insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. 18 I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

19 I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.

A Koi fish will often not grow more than to eight inches in a koi pond, but with the right environment, it can grow to 40 inches long

Prayer–a spirit prompted dialog between you and God.

Prayer isn’t just for Christians. It’s for imperfect people.

God put it in us to want to talk to Him. Even atheists have the knee jerk reaction of calling out to God when trouble arises.

Things we must do relating to prayer:

1. Pray privately–Jesus gave us this example when He went up on the mountain top and prayed alone. Jesus warned in Matthew 6:6– 6 But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

Find you a place, find you a time. Make a time and make a place. This should be a top priority for 2016 to pray more!

2. Pray with partners–we have a prayer chain and miracles have come from the prayers that have been said. God honors the prayers of His people.—Matthew 18:19–19 “I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you.

When Jesus took some of His disciples up on the mountain and they saw Moses and Elijah, His disciples wanted to build a temple there but God said “This is my Son-Listen to Him!”

3. Pray Publicly–Don’t pray publicly if you don’t pray privately but when you have a home prayer life, you should have a public prayer life.

Jesus gave us the example of praying publicly. He prayed over the loaves and fishes and they multiplied and fed everyone there.

When you are broken, sometimes that is when you will receive blessings.

Prayer is not our last resort–it should be our first response.

God can’t bless who you are pretending to be. He blesses your true character. If you act like you are a powerful praying Christian and try to pray publicly but you don’t have the prayer life, God won’t bless that.

When we pray publicly, in honesty and not to be seen, God will bless it and will bless those who witness it. It will become an example for others to follow.

My praying over the food was the deciding point for my boss and his wife to start attending church. It wasn’t me, but the power of the Holy Spirit who convicted them and now they are blessed and attend church every Sunday.

God wants the church to be a house of prayer. He will do whatever it takes for that to happen. We are His temple-the temple of the Holy Spirit and we need to be FILLED WITH PRAYER constantly.

God loves the times that we spend with Him, driving down the road, singing and worshipping. Any time that we spend connected with God is productive. Every moment that we spend reaching out to God is drawing us closer to Him and deeper into a spirit led life.

There is power in prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer is a 21 second prayer. Let’s spend the next 21 days praying the Lord’s Prayer. Here is the 21 Day Prayer Challenge–I am going to give up something that I really like-coffee. I am going to give up my coffee time and use that time to hunger more for God. I am going to use that time to draw even closer to God.

Back to Ephesians 1:15-20–These verses give us information about what to pray for.

This is what we need to be praying for each other and ourselves:

1. Spiritual Wisdom–God said He would give Solomon ANYTHING he wanted and he asked for WISDOM!! Job 28:18–the price of wisdom is above rubies.

2. Our hearts be flooded with light–Light brings truth. Without the light we don’t see things as God sees them. We need to pray that we see what God sees!! 2 Kings 6:17 17 Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire. We need to see things the way God sees them. Pray for this!! In our marriages, in our families, in our careers, in our ministries…. we need the light of God to shine so we can see the way God does. “Give me Your eyes for just one second. Give me Your eyes so I can see, everything that I’ve been missing. Give me Your love for humanity.”

3. Incredible greatness of God’s power–I don’t come to church to just keep being the same as I was yesterday. I come to change-we need the power of God to be able to change. We need to be looking for God’s power to be manifested in our homes, churches, schools, towns and nation! We need to be praying for that, expecting that.

Taking up this challenge and participating each day will change your life. It will change our church. It can change our world.